NEW YORK, NY – A growing religious movement is protesting the tradition of buying gifts for Christmas!

NEW YORK, NY – A growing religious movement is protesting the tradition of buying gifts for Christmas!

The Advent Conspiracy movement is based on the belief that the commercialization of Christmas is threatening the very meaning of the holiday.

One of the leaders of the movement, pastor Rick McKinley, explained, “It’s the shopping, the going into debt, the worrying that ‘If I don’t spend enough money, someone will think I don’t love them.'”

About four years ago, McKinley and a number of pastors realized that they no longer enjoyed Christmas. They decided to ask members of their congregations to spend less on presents and instead spend more time worshiping and donating saved funds to good causes.

Some of the conservative movement are outraged over what they see as a threat to Christmas. Bill O’Reilly consistently speaks of the supposed “war on Christmas”, while others like the organization Focus on the Family create campaigns against anti-Christmas companies. Stand for Christmas is used to highlight corporations that “purposefully” omit references to Christmas in their holiday promotions.

Instead of attacking the consumerist attitude to the holiday, the Advent Conspiracy focuses on the positive actions followers can take to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas, such as donating their leftover money to organizations that dig wells in developing countries.